iNaturalist Citizen Science hands-on workshop

On 11th July, UCL ran a webinar specially directed at conservation enthusiasts and parents with young children. It focused on the basics of citizen science and how to use iNaturalist and was a mixture of extremely short talks and activities. We told a short story for young children about a bumblebee and invited them to draw pictures of wildlife while we held the talks (on citizen science, iNaturalist and running outdoor events). We also called a break halfway through in order that participants could go outside and take pictures with iNaturalist, then upload them to a Padlet. For this webinar, Alice drew on her skills from prior jobs working in schools and science camps to provide a blend of listening and activity, which built up confidence and encouraged questions and active participation. The main topic of the Q&A was a heartwarming one – a citizen science enthusiast noted that many public citizen science events (and projects!) are likely to attract fewer participants than is hoped, but they are still worth doing, and if one does not get many visitors this does not make one a failure.

Parents were invited to upload their children’s wildlife drawings onto the Padlet (as long as no identifying details were shared along with them), and this is a contribution by an 11-year-old in the UK.